NOV. 3 BALLOT: GAY RIGHTS

Washington state: Referendum 71. A referendum on the Legislature's expansion of domestic partnership rights to include all of the rights of married couples except the term “marriage.”

Playing out in the opposite corner of the continental United States is a political campaign that would look very familiar to the voters of California.

Television commercials in Maine contend that legalizing same-sex marriage would result in homosexuality being taught to schoolchildren.

The ads feature families, teachers and law professors and were produced by the Sacramento political consulting firm that made similar commercials for the successful Proposition 8 campaign last fall that reimposed the ban on same-sex marriage in California.

The Maine same-sex marriage referendum is one of two gay-rights battles that will be decided in Nov. 3 elections. The other would overturn comprehensive domestic partnership legislation, dubbed “everything but marriage,” in Washington state.

Same-sex marriage laws have been passed by legislatures, but never by voters. Thirty states have voter-approved gay-marriage bans.

“I think (Maine) could be the first state to endorse same-sex marriage at the polls, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it,” said Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine.

A recent statewide survey by Portland pollster Patrick Murphy shows voters upholding the Maine same-sex marriage law 52 percent to 43 percent. Murphy cautioned that the referendum known as Question 1 could go either way because voter turnouts in off-year elections are notoriously unpredictable.

The referendum process in Maine is the opposite of California's. In California, as in Washington state, voters affirm a bill passed by the legislature by voting “yes.” But because Maine's referendum process is called the “people's veto,” a “yes” vote rejects the bill.

Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for the No on 1 campaign, Protect Maine Equality, has closely studied the Proposition 8 campaign to avoid the mistakes of what is widely acknowledged to have been a badly flawed No on 8 effort and anticipate the lines of attack from the other side.

“Our opponents have really taken the playbook that ended up working in California and have tried to use the exact same playbook in Maine,” said Marc Solomon, marriage director for California's largest gay-rights organization, Equality California. “And our side, to its credit, has really run a Maine-focused campaign using people from Maine. That's making a huge difference.”

The “no” campaign also has tried to humanize the issue by running ads featuring same-sex couples and their families — something the No on 8 campaign shied away from in California.

The Maine campaign also has pushed back aggressively against the claim that legalizing same-sex marriage would make it part of the public school curriculum by trotting out a succession of education and legal officials to dispute the contention.

The campaign in favor of same-sex marriage may be faster on their feet than the No on 8 campaign in California was, but no more credible, said Jeff Flint, senior partner of Schubert Flint consulting in Sacramento, which is directing the Yes on 1 campaign in Maine. The company also guided the Yes on 8 campaign.

“Similar to the California experience, the campaign has been heavily focused on how it affects the schools,” Flint said. “And the other side is trying to deflect the issue, but they end up debating on our terms, which is good for us. They never say it won't happen; they say there's nothing in the law that mandates it, which is irrelevant.”

Voters aren't buying the claim, said Murphy, the pollster.

“It's not an argument that's been resonating,” he said. “Our poll shows less than one-third believe the argument. So I'm not sure what their closing argument's going to be.”

As a venue for the same-sex marriage battle, Maine couldn't be any more different from sprawling, ethnically diverse California.

Its population of slightly more than 1.3 million — about 40,000 more people than in San Diego — is 96.5 percent white.

There are no large, visible gay enclaves such as San Francisco, West Hollywood or Hillcrest. That feature, said Fried at the University of Maine, could work to the “no” side's advantage.

“I don't think you have the feeling of a gay community that you have in other places,” Fried said. “That means people are more mixed in and they're going to know people in their synagogue or church who are gay or at work or at the soccer game with their kids.”

Across the country, a similar war is being waged over Referendum 71 in Washington state.

Referendum 71 seeks to overturn a bill passed by the Washington Legislature that would give same-sex couples all of the same rights, responsibilities and obligations of married couples “except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.”

As they have in California, gay-rights forces in Washington state have achieved much of their agenda by taking an incremental approach with the Legislature.

Because of that, and because the “no” side is so underfinanced, Matt Barreto, a political science professor at the University of Washington, thinks Referendum 71 will pass.

“I would say that if it does pass by a healthy margin, it could be sort of a road map for other states interested in pursuing same-sex partnership rights,” Barreto said. “You achieve all of the same rights but you don't alienate people on social grounds with the word marriage.”

Opponents call the legislation a Trojan horse, advanced by interests whose ultimate goal is nothing less than full marriage rights by name for same-sex couples.

“It's a culture war on this issue. Our way of life is being threatened,” Larry Stickney, campaign manager for No on 71, Protect Marriage Washington, told The Seattle Times.

Supporters of Referendum 71 don't deny they would like to attain full marriage rights at some point, but maintain the issue at hand is a modest expansion of laws already on the books.

“I think there are some people who are saying we want to have this in the future,” said Sue Evans, communication director for Approve 71. “But right now, the battle is about the existing domestic partnership law.”